Bengaluru: As Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s aura grows, sledging would be a routinely used tactic to unsettle him and the young Indian batting star will need “situation management” training to avoid losing composure like he did during a recent India A game in Sri Lanka, according to experts.
The 15-year-old is currently the most talked about teenager in international cricket and as his footprint on the game becomes bigger, opposition teams will try to touch some raw nerves to distract him. A prominent psychologist said the power-hitter needs to be prepared to tackle the situation.
“I have had the opportunity of working with Vaibhav at National Cricket Academy 2-3 years back, along with a group of under-16 boys and he is a calm boy. So, the BCCI and the NCA (now Centre of Excellence), headed by VVS Laxman, already understand the importance of it and that is why players are profiled in sports psychology services whenever there are camps,” Dr Swaroop Savanur, a prominent sports psychologist in India, told PTI.
Apart from BCCI and the Centre of Excellence, Savanur has worked with Punjab Kings in the IPL, various domestic teams like Vidarbha and the India Under-17 football team.
Sooryavanshi grabbed headlines for reacting aggressively to sledging by the Sri Lanka A players in a close match that India A lost in Dambulla recently. Savanur said while talent is the major contributor to a player’s growth, mind control too is crucial for big achievements.
“To help the players slowly understand their mindset and slowly develop a way to work on it. I have conducted 18-19 high performance camps for young cricketers at the CoE even when Rahul Dravid was heading it. Now, it has become a standard practice,” Savanur said.
“But more work needs to be done because we see so many wonderful players at the under-19 level. But they are unable to see that kind of success when they are going at the senior level. The talent was there, the intention was there, the technique and workmanship was there,” he lamented.
Savanur stressed on the need to develop “situational intelligence”.
“If it does not get developed, then unfortunately the talent does not get expressed at all. So whether Vaibhav has it or not is not a question. It’s more about understanding the personality behind him, and then working on it,” he added.
The Indian cricket team is in a transition phase, and a slew of young cricketers are trying to cement their place after the retirements of stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja from various formats.
A former senior national selector underscored the significance of mental preparation.
“There is no doubt about the talent of young cricketers. But sometimes, they will be in a hurry to achieve certain records or milestones in their career as they are coming in place of some high-achieving individuals. It’s a dangerous thing to do as it can lead to anxiety.
“They should be given proper counselling by the BCCI, and the team management should sit down with the newcomers and take them into confidence, saying stuff like ‘don’t hurry yourself’ and ‘we are behind you’. It will calm a lot of nerves and prepare them for a bigger stage,” he said.
Savanur agreed to the point, and said the sporting eco-system needs to have empathy to bridge the gap between potential and performance.
“Everybody says sports is 90 per cent mental game. So, the awareness is there. But the awareness is still in a very skewed manner. I think the sporting ecosystem is looking at it as a problem-solution approach, that having mental challenges in sports, having pressure and anxiety is somehow a problem.
“And that is the reason why people are, although wanting to work on it, still unable to work on it. So, this awareness about mental preparation should be integrated as a routine in your sport. So, that is a fundamental change that the ecosystem needs to have, whether it’s coaches, parents, or the athletes themselves.”
Sooryavanshi achieved high success in the IPL this year for Rajasthan Royals, emerging as the Orange Cap holder with 776 runs at a strike-rate of 237.31.
Savanur said mental conditioning helps a player like Sooryavanshi cope with failures, which is an inevitable part of sport. That awareness and the resultant restraint, Savanur said, becomes visible gradually.
“At that moment of time, in those crunch seconds which matter, if I’m unable to apply a solution, then I’m not able to control my mind and that is what differentiates a good and great athlete. It’s not magical but a logical process.
“When you are working on mindset, it is not going to be dramatically visible. It is going to be visible subtly. It is going to be visible through change in match preparation, thinking about the game, and thinking during a tough situation,” he explained.
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